In the middle of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the northern-western part of China, the province of Xinjiang is a very least populated province whereas it covers near to a sixth of the country's territory. Getting resisted while in centuries the chinese domination, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or Old East Turkistan, fell within the Chinese Han domination in 1949. From then, its population is mainly Uyghur People and Turkish - speaking System.
Muslim most importantly, the Uyghur people have a very good religious identification which usually, in specific, permitted them to protect a solid difference in opposition to the Chinese enemy. Without a doubt, the Uyghur Kingdom of Mongolia knew a amazing civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.
While in their own history, the Uyghur People successively adopted Shamanism, Manicheism, Buddhism and the Nestorianism before finally moving to Islam when the Arab conquerors beat the Chinese in year 751 BC., therefore starting the way to the Islamization of the complete Central Asia.
Under the effect of the beliefs which they taken, the Uyghurs used successively, and sometimes in a competing way, a large number of written forms (turco-runic, brahmi, tokharien, soghdien) before developing their own graphic system.
The entrance of Islam was a great change simply because it was supported by the absorption of the Uyghur areas in the enormous Turco-Mongolian and Muslim Empire. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan slowly replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used at present.
If their own writing, their language and their religion mark a real big difference with the tradition of Chinese Han, the Uyghurs also differ from their aspect, so characteristic of Central Asia's people. A matt skin, eyes representing a whole pallet of colors, from black to deep blue, features going out to the Mongolian, Turkish or Uzbek roots of these men and these women.
For a few years, China has integrated the proper identity of these remote people, though they represent only eight million people - a little for this great region. So, the Uyghurs are now part of the fifty six ethnic minority groups having been well known in an official way by the People's Republic of China.
This law allows these people a few rights in a land exactly where their big difference is very often repressed. Thus, Uyghur people escape the "single child policy" and their language is accepted as the second official language in Xinjiang.
The integration of the Uyghurs and their culture in China, however, appears pretty illusory. The presence of all natural sources in Xinjiang, and its area with nations identified as very sensitive, clearly motivated the government to increase the sinicization of this area. Million of Han thus came to settle in this new Chinese eldorado, monopolizing the more significant responsibility jobs.
In response to this true will to assimilate the Uyghurs into the Chinese culture, an independent party like East Turkistan Islamic Movement(ETIM) was born in the early 1990.
Saying more freedom, but in particular the acceptance of their true identity, this movement was severely repressed by the power authorities in place Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
The events of September 11, 2001, were the perfect occasion for the Chinese government to justify true reprisals: they declared the "Uyghur freedom fighters" as dangerous terrorists linked to Al Quaida because of their Muslim origins and their proximity with Pakistan and Afghanistan... However, the terrible repression which followed did not calm down the anger. The Uyghur population continues today to proudly maintain their identification and their traditions , although they become a minority on their own territory.
For more information about the Uyghurs, you can visit a Uyghur website called Uyghur News at http://www.uyghurnews.com
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